Saturday, May 4, 2013

May 4, 1970: Four Dead in Ohio

I wrote this piece last year on the Anniversary of the Kent State Shootings--but it never made it to the Rambling On Blog.  It's hard to believe that a year has passed, let alone 43 of them since I walked into the teacher's lounge at Wauconda Middle School as a first year teacher to hear a colleague proclaim, "those kids got exactly what they deserved. " 

As the pundits search for answers to the Boston Marathon tragedy, the shootings in Newtown or Aurora, how often to do they address the glorification of violence that lies deep in the fabric of our own cultural values? A society that continues to support capital punishment and the use of drones against distant villagers; a society that entertains itself with violent video games and countless media heroes with blazing guns, need not look any further for the answers. -----Brother Lefty  

Lest we forget--or never knew--on this day in 1970 four students at Kent State University were killed when national guard troops called into "maintain order" opened fire on the unarmed protestors.

I hadn't realized the anniversary was today until Jenny, my friend and Yoga Mentor mentioned it this evening after class.  She was amazed that when she had mentioned to a 40 something year old friend earlier, she had never heard about Kent State--or Crosby Stills Nash and Young for that matter!! The true history of the quest for peace and justice--and the violent reaction to it--is so often lost in the noise and distractions of daily life in this hyper-capitalistic society today.  It's easy to forget.  I did today--twice.



As I moved through hobbling around on these crutches to make dinner and went upstairs to get ready to be horizontal, I had entirely forgotten about Kent State again--until a Facebook post from Iris Sutter via Seniors for a Democratic Society! 

I immediately crawled over to grab the 12 stringer and sang a few rounds of CSNY's "Ohio".  (I had actually played in front of the Coop today and wish I would hadn't let this date slip past me without honoring all those involved.)   Now I sit here with fingers flying over this keyboard,  crying over the needless bloodshed that our species it prone to--and how Noble and Courageous the quest for Peace truly is.

I'm so grateful to all those people, the countless human beings whose names I'll never know who have waged peace, often at the risk of their own safety, throughout human history.  I'm grateful to all those who continue on.

I'm also grateful for the good fortune to have stumbled across the Meditation Practices which help me to face all this,  feel it fully--and keep on trucking along the Path of Peace.

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My Humble Take on the Real Deal

I believe that the movement for peace, economic democracy and social justice is a Spiritual Quest. No mean feat, what is called for is a True Revolution of the Heart and Mind--and it starts with each of us.

This revolution has to be Peaceful. The Hippies (and Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King, et al) had it right. It really is all about Peace and Love. Besides being a total drag, violence just doesn't work. It keeps our wheels spinning in fear, anger and pain. Who needs that?

Besides some hard work, I think the Revolution also calls for dancing, plenty of laughter, and some sitting around just doing nothing. (Some folks call it meditation.)


As Stephen Gaskin, proclaimed years ago:

"We're out to raise Hell--in the Bodhisattvic* sense."

Doesn't that sound like some serious fun?

(*The Bodhisattva Vow is a set of commitments made in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. It basically says I vow to get my act together and figure it out well enough to really help out--and I ain't gonna stop until everybody is covered.

I've found that doesn't necessarily have to happen in that order. It's best to try to help out even before you have it all together! Like right now.)

-----Brother Lefty Smith, Founding S.O.B*